144 ROSE FAMILY. 



semi-double (very rarely single) flowers, usually in twos or threes, on 

 stalks about an inch long, appearing with the leaves ; leaves ovate-lance- 

 olate, smooth, finely serrate. Generally, but erroneously, called P. NANA 

 in gardens. 



P. tri/oba, Lindl. FLOWERING ALMOND. Cult, from China ; bush with 

 nearly sessile, usually very double (rarely semi-double) flowers, pink or 

 rose-colored, borne singly and appearing before the leaves ; the latter 

 broadly ovate or obovate, and rather abruptly pointed, slightly hairy, 

 coarsely toothed or even jagged above, sometimes obscurely three-lobed. 



* * Small trees, bearing fruit of commercial value. 



P. Am/gdalus, Baill. The COMMON ALMOND. Cult, from the Orient ; 

 tree 10 to 20 high, with large sessile flowers, which appear before the 

 leaves and persist for many days ; leaves lanceolate, firm, and very closely 

 serrate ; fruit with a dry flesh, which finally splits away, freeing the large 

 softish stone, which is the Almond of commerce. 



P. Persica, Sieb. & Zucc. PEAC:I. From China ; differs from the last 

 in its thinner, broader, and more coarsely serrate leaves and thick- fleshed, 

 edible fruit, and mostly smaller, harder, and more deeply marked stone. 

 Var. necturlna, Maxim. The NECTARINE. Has a smooth fruit, usually 

 smaller. Var. platyc&rpa is the PEEN-TO or FLAT PEACH of the S. 



P. Simbnii, Carr. SIMON or APRICOT PLUM. Small, fastigiate tree 

 from China, cult, for its large, depressed, handsome maroon-red smooth 

 fruits; flowers pink-white, very short-stalked, borne singly or in pairs 

 before the leaves appear ; leaves lance-oblong or lance-obovate, thick 

 and firm, dull, conduplicate, closely serrate ; flesh of the very firm fruit 

 yellow, and clinging to the small spongy-roughened pit. 



2. APRICOTS. Flowers much as in 1 ; leaves convolute or rolled up 

 in the bud ; fruit pubescent or smooth, the stone compressed, bearing 

 one prominent margin^ and either smoothed or slightly roughened. 



P. Armenidca, Linn. COMMON APRICOT. Native of China ; flowers 

 pink- white, sessile and appearing singly before the leaves ; the latter 

 varying from ovate to round-ovate, prominently pointed and toothed, and 

 long-stalked ; fruit ripening (in the N.) in July and August, smooth, the 

 large, flat, smooth stone nearly or quite free. The RUSSIAN APRICOT is a 

 hardy race of this. 



P. dasycdrpa, Ehrh. BLACK or PURPLE APRICOT. Small tree, much 

 like the last, but the flowers prominently stalked ; the leaves thinner and 

 narrower, with smaller serratures ; fruit dull purple and fuzzy, the flesh 

 clinging to the thick, scarcely margined, pubescent stone. Nativity 

 unknown. 



3. PLUMS, etc. Flowers stalked in umbel-like f asides, appearing either 

 before or with the leaves; leaves either conduplicate or convolute in the 

 bud; fruit more or less globular and covered with a bloom, smooth, with 

 a compressed mostly smooth stone. 



* Small trees ; PLUMS. 



H- Exotic or foreign species. 



P. spindsa, Linn. A low and spreading, thorny, European tree, appear- 

 ing in this country chiefly in the double-flowered variety ; flowers borne 

 singly or in pairs (rarely^in 3's), very small as compared with the garden 

 Plum ; leaves small and mostly obovate and obtuse (or in some forms 

 very blunt-pointed), finely and doubly serrate, rugose, and more or less 

 hairy beneath ; fruit small and round, purple, scarcely edible. 



P. domestica, Linn. COMMON PLUM. Probably Asian ; flowers showy 

 (white), more or less fascicled; leaves large, ovate, or obovate usually, 



